Sierra Club joins groups asking EPA for more Hudson River PCBs cleanup

Outdoor advocates say EPA should order more PCBs dredging

By Brian Nearing

Published 9:04 pm, Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Fort Edward

The New Jersey head of the Sierra Club weighed into the controversy over General Electric's looming shutdown of its Hudson River PCB dredging project to fault the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for letting the company leave behind too many PCBs.

"EPA is allowing GE to walk away from the cleanup without removing their pollution," said state Director Jeff Tittel. "We have asked for a full removal of the contamination, by dredging the remaining toxic hotspots that contains dioxins, PCBs, and mercury. By letting GE off the hook, they will save hundreds of millions of dollars while New York and New Jersey will continue to get the PCBs."

His remarks came a day after a high-ranking regional EPA official said the agency was disinclined to consider growing calls to slow down GE's dismantling of its PCB processing facility in Fort Edward as it concludes its six-year, $1 billion dredging project of the river from Fort Edward to Troy.

EPA regional spokeswoman Mary Mears said that, should more dredging be ultimately required beyond what GE has done, a "temporary processing facility can be constructed at that time ... EPA has used temporary dewatering facilities at other sites across the country, so dismantling the 100-acre plant would not preclude future dredging."

Mears called the EPA-directed project "a success" and a "historic achievement for the recovery of the Hudson River ... EPA has fought for the Hudson River, too, and has done its job by holding GE to the very stringent requirements of the 2002 cleanup plan and the conditions of the subsequent 2006 legal agreement."

An increasing coalition of state and local elected officials, environmental groups, business leaders and, most recently, Catholic institutional investors have called on GE to expand dredging into another 136 acres beyond the EPA agreement and to include the PCB-impaired Champlain Canal. Canal officials have estimated it could cost $180 million to do the project alone.

On Thursday, supporters of additional dredging will rally at the Saratoga Spa State Park prior to the meeting of an EPA-created citizens' group that advises on the dredging project.

Tittel said that "EPA has sold out the river by not requiring GE to clean up the mess they made. This plan only removes 65 percent of its total pollution and without a complete clean-up it will lead to more pollution forever."

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The EPA could not legally require navigational dredging of the canal under the Superfund program, which leaves the issue to the state and federal river trustees. Economic development officials along the canal worry it might not be dredged for years if GE dismantles is dredging facility without an agreement.